A New Year's Message & A Haiku Workshop

Here is a wonderful message and beautiful artwork from Merrill Gonzales:

Happy Lunar New Year of the Tiger

The Tiger is compatible with the Dog and the Horse and is also in harmony with the Pig. The sign opposite the Tiger is the Monkey and it is said that if the Monkey and the Snake (which also has a hard time in the year of the Tiger) puts a Pig in their pocket it will ease their way through the Year of the Tiger.

I enjoy the myths surrounding these ancient ways of seeing the world and making sense of things in their lives. I am reminded of the old Jewish saying that "God made man because he loved stories." And although I am a Christian it is not incompatible with my own belief in GOD and JESUS to try to understand what the ancients were trying to explain with regard to the people and events in their lives. I find it very interesting and rewarding.

I wish everyone a very Happy Lunar New Year of the Tiger. It may be a hectic year ... so hang onto your friends everyone... Let's give everyone a little extra care as some may be having a hard time...but with a little grace it could be the best year yet.


first laugh —
the baby makes a face
at his toy tiger...

[Art and haiku by Merrill Gonzales]

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Deborah P Kolodji posted this message on Facebook. I repost here for readers who are not members of Facebook.

Raining Haiku...

On Saturday, Naia and I attended a "winter rain" haiku workshop at the Penisula Center Library in Rolling Hills Estates. Oleg Kagan was the facilitator and he developed a wonderful program around Penny Harter's haiku workshop chapter in The Haiku Handbook (Chapter 12).

Although the workshop was named "winter rain" after a David Lanoue translation of Issa, the day was bright and sunny. Oleg took it in stride. "This should be the beautiful day haiku workshop!" he said.

But all sun aside, it is raining. Raining haiku. It is splashing up everywhere, in unexpected places like road signs in WeHo.

http://www.studiolowry.info/pages/_NEW_additional.html

http://www.studiolowry.info/pages/_NEW.html

In addition to Rebecca Lowry's haiku art installation, haiku has been recently spotted on Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry, in a J.D. Salinger obituary, and in Valentine displays at local bookstores, filled with Love Haiku, a new book of translations by Patricia Donegan with Yoshie Ishibashi.